The Explorers
Walk along with us and explore the steps University of Pittsburgh Health Sciences students take on their journey to discovering their education, careers and themselves.
Making
Connections
“The value of occupational therapy is you’re helping people do everything in their life that occupies their time and is meaningful to them.”
Julia Lam
Meet Julia Lam, an occupational therapist whose work focuses on experiencing homelessness. She grew up in East Brunswick, N.J., and has bachelor’s degrees from Pitt in rehabilitation science and psychology, and a doctorate in occupational therapy from the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences. She was president of Pitt’s street medicine organization as a graduate student.
When we spoke with her in October 2023, she was starting a nonprofit called Outreach Therapy to help people making the transition from living on the streets to living indoors.
The First Step:
Discovery
Lam fell in love with occupational therapy in her junior year of college, in the rehab science bachelor’s program. “There was one class where we learned about occupational therapy and I had such a lightbulb moment of realizing that OT was for me, and I called up my advisor,” she said.
“I love that I can help people approach working on functioning in their daily life, no matter what the problem is, whether it’s physical health, mental health, looking at their environment. I like that it’s a very holistic approach that you can help people do the things that are meaningful to them.” And, she added, “it’s really strengths-based and so that’s what attracted me.”
The Second Step:
Guidance
The advisors Lam had throughout her years at Pitt were a major influence, beginning with Amy Evans, an academic advisor in the SHRS Center for Advising and Student Success.
In addition to rehab science, Lam was also a psychology major in the School of Arts and Sciences. With her interest in mental health, Denise Chisholm, Professor and Vice Chair for Department Affairs; Director, Doctor of Occupational Therapy became her mentor once she was in the OTD program.
“Throughout graduate school, my capstone experience for occupational therapy was at Western Psych and so I had a lot of experience with patients with serious mental illness that had long-term inpatient hospitalization. That experience carried over to seeing people on the street that have a lot of similar diagnoses,” Lam said.
She also worked in the Rehabilitation Health Services Research Lab with Natalie Leland, professor of occupational therapy, looking at health equity. “Once I discovered my interest in occupational therapy for people experiencing homelessness, it really tied together this idea of health equity, mental health, physical health, and really functioning and life transitions.”
The Third Step:
Getting Help and Encouragement
One of Lam’s former professors, Alyson Stover, an associate professor of occupational therapy and president of the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA), guided her in how to submit paperwork to establish her own nonprofit with 501(c)(3) status and introduced her to others who do similar work.
“Making these connections I would have never known about, like funding opportunities for people that are passionate about the same things as me, has opened up so many doors,” she said.
She applied for grants from places like the Sandra Hoskins Legacy Foundation and the Hillman Foundation, both of which have a history of supporting people experiencing homelessness.
The Next Steps
Research has shown that there is an elevated mortality rate among people making the transition from living on the streets to housing, and Lam’s goal is to help people make that adjustment safely.
“The nonprofit that I founded is to provide occupational therapy for people especially when they’re transitioning from rough sleeping outdoors to transitioning to what it’s like to live in an apartment again, because it’s such a shock to the system of when you’re so skilled at surviving outdoors in such harsh conditions,” she said.
About the School of Health and
Rehabilitation Sciences
The University of Pittsburgh School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences (SHRS) is a nationally renowned leader in the field of health care education, research and clinical practice preparation. With 13 different disciplines related to health and rehabilitative care, SHRS shapes future generations of health care professionals—therapists, counselors, advocates, scientists, providers and practitioners—trained to serve the needs of all people regardless of background, levels of health or mobility. We are built on a legacy of academic excellence and innovation and fueled by passionate educators and researchers, allowing us to meet the health care and rehabilitation needs of today and drive meaningful change in the future. Learn how bold moves SHRS.
